Alumnus: Fitim Rama – RIT Kosovo Class of 2014

February 26, 2019
Fitim Rama joined RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.) in 2010 and graduated in 2014 with high honors. His majors were in Economics and Management and his minor in International Relations. Mr. Rama was awarded merit-based Scholarships every year and has done couple of internships throughout his studies at RIT Kosovo (A.U.K). After finishing his first academic year, he won an internship at TEB bank during the summer. His second internship was as a sales agent for computer software, and on his third year he got employed as an intern at Meridian. He also has experience working abroad through the Work and Travel program which he recommends to everyone, and describes the experience as “very enriching”. During the summer months after graduation, Fitim was working as an Intern at MDA (Management Development Associates), and in September he was employed by PECB which is a certification body based in Canada. PECB is a global company accredited for certification of individuals, management systems, and products/services in various fields including ISO standards. Today PECB has certified more than 20,000 individuals worldwide, and they have over 1500 global partners, over 1100 certified trainers, and over 300 approved auditors.

Mr. Rama started as a Marketing Officer at PECB for five months, and was then promoted to Channel Manager – doing business development for North America and managing a marketing portfolio. After seven months in this position he got promoted to PECB Marketing Supervisor leading the marketing team which was challenging for him, but the studies and experiences he had as a student at RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.) helped him a lot. According to him RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.) prepared him to be more practical, a better networker and prepared him to find better opportunities in the business world.

After eight months, in May 2016 Fitim was promoted to PECB Commercial Director leading the Marketing and Business Development teams, and in July 2017 he got promoted to PECB Managing Director which he considers his highest individual accomplishment so far and continues to operate this role at PECB. Mr. Rama did not continue further studies, however, he followed the path on building a higher education institution, the PECB University which is based in Washington D.C and offers MBA degrees in distant format to students worldwide.

In his free time, Mr. Rama plays football and frequents the gym often. Fitim enjoys reading a lot, mostly business readings and he values his free time because of the dynamic environment, so whenever he gets the chance he goes out with family or friends.

Coming from a public high school in Mitrovica, he found the American education system a bit difficult, especially writing essays and doing research; but, he also found it necessary to be able to strive in business and to be successful in a working environment. In his words, these practices “help you when you start a career.” It is also the culture of work ethics and the culture that you need to show results and not just “pretend that you’re doing something” something that he continue to follows and guide his team to do the same.

When he was applying for college admissions, Mr. Rama got accepted to 2 other universities in addition to RIT Kosovo (A.U.K). Although he did not have the economic means initially, Fitim chose RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.) since he won a scholarship which helped Fitim make a decision which he says was the right one to make, because without RIT Kosovo (A.U.K), it would have been much tougher to be in the position he is now. For him RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.) changed his “life in a better way.”

His advice for the RIT Kosovo (A.U.K)’s current students is to take advantage as much as they can from the university. Engaging in extracurricular activities, teamwork and in professional networking will broaden our perspective and make us better students. Fitim understands that for some students it’s hard to catch up with the learning materials as fast as their colleagues, so his advice on this matter is to work hard and don’t let the obstacles get you behind schedule compared to others.

For the prospective students, Mr. Rama says that they should not be hesitant in joining RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.) since it has the best education programs, quality and professors in Kosovo.